Tails Of Shadows
by Rae Logan
Summary: Tails has been acting strange lately, but all things turn suspicious when he attacks Shadow after a break in at the Museum. Shadow decides to investigate him himself. No real pairups at all, just a very dark Tails. Rated High T
1. Anger

A totally new fanfic to help break the monotonious storylines, while still being familar. Enjoy.

BTW: I'm planning on closing up XANA's Virus in about 4 more chapters, so I wanted to start a new one.

Tails of Shadows

Chapter One

Anger

* * *

He hacked into the system, shutting down the lasers and alarms. He looked up and grinned as he saw the survailence cameras shift their gazes downward, thier red lights ceasing to work.

"Perfect..." He said as he adjusted his goggles, positioning them over his blue eyes. "This should give me a good ten minutes... That's all I need..."

He yanked the cord to his laptop out of the system, and stuffed it in his backpack. He drew out a glasscutter, and carefully traced a large circular hole, big enough for him to crawl through, but not too small, as it might give way his identity to those who will find this scene the following morning. While keeping a good grip on the suction cup that was holding the glass section in place, he jerked his hands back, and with a quick scratching sound, followed by a pop, he pulled it free, and dropped it in a nearby bush. He crawled right in.

_The Museum sure looks creepy at night... _He thought to himself, but shook his head to regain focus on his task at hand. _The Emerald should be that way..._ He took off down the hall, the rubber soles of his sneakers squeaking softly as he made a right, and then a left. He squeezed through the bars that kept that room sealed off at night, having to pull his foot through roughly as it got caught. he stumbled back and turned around. In a glass case, on a pedistal, sitting on a red cushion was the yellow Emerald. Chaos energy radiating from its very edges. Pure... wonderful... Chaos energy...

"Score!" he whispered excitedly. Glasscutter in hand, he traced a hole the size of his fist into the side of the case. He pushed the disc inward, and closed his left hand around the Emerald. As the edges dug sharply into his gloved palm, it's power surged through his hand, up his arm, and spread thoughout his body. He shivered ecstatically as his golden yellow fur stood on end. He enjoyed the power. One Emerald was a good start... he wondered faintly what it feel like with two Emeralds, or even _all _of them...

A click and a whir drove him back to reality. The system was begining to reboot, and the cameras' were starting back up again. He cursed softly as he pulled the Emerald out of the case quickly, the glass edges sliding sharply into his arm.

"**_Damn!_**" He cursed loudly as his free hand flew over his arm to cover the injury as blood began to pool lighty from the cut. He wished he was outside the doors of the Museum, now. He clutched the Emerald tightly in his hand, and said the only thing he could think of.

"**Chaos**...** _CONTROL!_"** He felt a strong wind rush around him and through his fur, cooling his heated skin. His eyes saw everything flash past him in a blur of color. A bright light, and he was laying on the cold steps outside the Museum, breathing heavily, staring at the marble archway that welcomes visitors. He sat up, clutching his arm still. He lifted his hand a little, and saw a thin, red line that stretched horizontally across the palm. His blood.

He cursed lightly. It could have been worse. At least he left no evidence of who he was behind. He could easily cover this up with a fake tinkering accident story. The blood was beginning to let up some, so he let his arm go.

He began to laugh insanely. It was now his. His Emerald and his alone. Not even Doctor Eggman could tear it from his hands. He felt invincible. He performed another Chaos Control, and disappeared into the night in a yellow flash, his echoing maniacal laughter fading into the stillness of the night.

* * *

"This is really weird!" 

"No evidence left at all?"

"Just the holes in the glass."

"Who would have done this?"

"I bet it was Eggman!"

"You sure? He wouldn't have gone through such care... he would have just taken it..."

"FROGGY!"

Mobians were arguing. The Chaotix had begun to question Shadow.

"Did you see anything last night?"

"No."

"Were you anywhere near the Museum between 12-1 am last night?"

"No."

"Can anyone confirm that?"

"I can..." It was Sonic. " We were at my place."

"Why?"

"I just got Halo 3. He was showing me how to set up my 360."

"At 12-1 in the morning?"

"Actually, that was earlier."

"Then how can you confirm he was where he said he was?"

"Curfew's at 11. We were blastin' Covinent and Brute butt past then."

"Were the graphics good?"

Sonic trailed off into the subject.

"Hell, yeah they are! The grass moves when you walk on it, The Guilty Spark comes back, you get to play through old levels, record videos, and the Master Chief and Sargent Johnson-" Shadow clapped a hand over Sonic's mouth.

"_Don't ruin the ending... not everyone's played it yet!_" He hissed into his ear. Sonic sweatdropped, and muttered an apology.

"So, why all the questions? Surely you don't think any of _us_ did it?" Shadow questioned.

"Standard proceedure. We need to elimimate the innocent to be left with the guilty."

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic waved at his little buddy, who looked a little nervous, but quickly regained his composure. Sonic and Shadow's gazes drifted towards Tails' left arm, which had a bandage wrapped around the lower portion on the top. It seemed to have been a pretty long cut.

"Tails? Buddy, what happened?" Sonic knelt down and inspected the fox's arm. Tails looked to the left as he explained.

"It's nothing, it's only superficial. I just got hurt while making a few adjustments to my newest vehicle, the Twister. It's like a drill. It should help us on digging missions when Knuckles can't help us."

"WHAT? I'M BEING REPLACED?!" Knuckles' angry voice echoed throughout the Museum.

"No! I just- I-"

"I'll talk to him." Said Sonic, patted Tails on the head. "Just next time, be carefull, 'kay?"

Tails nodded nervously as Sonic sped across the room. Shadow was staring at Tails with his penatrating ruby eyes. Tails felt like he was being X-rayed.

"You're lying..." He said unperturbedly, his eyes narrowing as his brow furrowed. His arms were crossed. But his face held no expression.

"Wh-what?" Tails was nervous. Had he been too obvious?

"You looked to your left... you're lying about how you hurt yourself..."

"How did-?"

"I know more than what I let on... so why don't you tell us the truth?"

Tails was infuriated. He jumped at Shadow, and knocked him to the hard ground. Shadow didn't have time to react, and could only stare at the fox, startled, as he leaned in to his face and shook him by his chest fluff roughly.

"YOU THINK I HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS, YOU (_Tails called Shadow something that made everyone flinch_)?! WELL!? DO YOU!?"

Shadow stammered a little from shock. Sonic snapped out of his stupor, and rushed to pull a struggling Tails off an equally dismayed Shadow. Shadow scooted away a bit as Tails tried to thrash out of Sonic's grasp, screaming at Shadow.

"HE HAS NO RIGHT!! NO RIGHT TO ACCUSE ME AT ALL!"

"I... didn't..."

Tails pulled free and took another dive at Shadow, letting loose a string of curse words. Shadow pulled his green Emerald fron his quills and performed a Chaos Control to warp behind the Chaotix just as Tails found himself incased in a glowing, translucent, seafoam bubble, suspended in the air. Silver had his hand out in front of him, hand markings glowing bright as his quills lifted upward from his powers.

"_What is your **problem**?_" He growled at the fox, angerly."I was here the whole time, and Shadow didn't say anything about accusing you."

Big, who had been squeezing Froggy in his hands, felt the frog slip out of his grasp, and watched him hop away. A few minutes passed before he registered what had happened, because he was more surprised with Tails' reaction. He ran out the door and yelled "WAIT FOR ME FROGGY!". Nobody noticed.

Tails blinked frantically. Did he just blow his cover? He had to cover this up, quick. He put on a surprised facade, and began to fabricate.

"I'm sorry... I've just been edgy lately... with... you know..." He let a real tear slip from his eyes, as he thought about Cosmo. Silver sympathized with him, and let the bubble down. The room was quiet. "...I'm sorry, Shadow..."

Shadow could only nod weakly in respose.

Tails took his leave, Sonic following him.

Shadow stared outwardly into the open. He could have sworn he had seen Tails grin evily as he wave goodbye to them. The look in the fox's blue eyes was far from any kindness the nibi fox had harbored there before. They were full of cold, manipulative, malevolence. Only for that moment.

"Mr. Shadow... are you okay?"

Cream was standing over him, staring concernedly at him. He became aware that he was shaking a little. He stood up and brushed himself off.

"I'm fine...Nothing really fazes me..."

He strode off out the door, as Cream stared.

_Tails is up to something... and I'm gonna find out what..._

* * *

Tails has a bit of a dark side... this should prove intresting... Reviews are welcomed like no tommorow! 


	2. Regret

You all ready for the next chapter? I know I am :D

Tails of Shadows

Chapter Two

Regret

* * *

The twin tailed fox held the Emerald in his hands. He was alone now, alone with his precious Chaos Emerald. He stroked it gently, murmuring about his plans to himself. No one had suspected anything... except for Shadow... but now that he thought about it, maybe Shadow didn't know at first. But he sure as hell would know now... his reaction to Shadow's questions did raise a few in other's heads. But they wouldn't understand... 

He placed his Emerald next to the potted plant he had been desprately trying to grow. It had remained as a sprout for too long... it had been over a year now...

He heard a loud crash outside his house, causing his head to snap up. It sounded like trashcans had been knocked over. He threw a piece of cloth over the Emerald, and dashed to his window to investegate. He looked out, to the left and the right... and saw nothing.

_Must have been a squirel..._ He thought, shaking his head._ It's still summer after all..._

He turned to leave his window, closing the blinds as he did so. He didn't notice Shadow pressed up against the wall below the window. He let go of his chest fluff and breathed a sigh of relief. That had been almost too close...

He shook his head roughly, and furrowed his brows. He had seen Tails with the Emerald, that lying, little...

He stood up quickly, completely enraged, but soon clasped his hand over his head, falling down again, as he had just slammed his head into the door of the window. Teeth clenched, he let out a long, dragged out growl of pain.

"_Dammit!_" He cursed out loud, curling up tightly for a good moment before realizing what he just did.

He let loose a foul profanity, before looking up at a very angry Tails, and swore under his breath.

"... Tails..."

"... I'm afraid you've seen too much, Shadow..."

"... I won't tell..." Shadow tried to keep his gaze straight; looking left could screw this up for him.

"... No... I don't think you will..." Tails climbed out of his window, and pointed a ray gun at Shadow.

"... Wh-what are you going to do, Miles?" Shadow's voice was moderately strong, but was peppered with little fear. He had never seen Tails like this before. It made him feel a little uneasy. He was hoping to reason with him by using Tails real first name.

"... I'm going to erase what you just saw from your mind..." He said cold calmly, he did not seem to notice the name usage. "... Mind you, this is still just a prototype, so it might not even work the same way as I want it to..."

"... You're mad..."

Tails blinked a moment or two before laughing like a maniac.

" If trying to use supernatual forces to call back a loved one labels me as mad... then, yes, I am!"

Shadow tried to move. He tried to call for help. But he couldn't.

"I can only imagine the fear that must be coursing through your body right now, Shadow..." Tails tilted his head to the side, his sky colored eyes playng of the madness in droves. He bared his teeth a little as he grinned manaically; Shadow had never known that Tails actually had fangs.

"...Why...?"

Shadow's question did not throw Tails off even the slightest.

"'Why?' You asked me 'Why'? I'll tell you..." He pointed his aim better. "... Because every night, I wake up, knowing that I failed the one I really cared about!" He squeezed the trigger, and a beam of blue light hit Shadow. Shadow felt his mind dift away slowly. "... Because I could have done something, but I couldn't... of course... you wouldn't understand... nobody _ever **does!**_"

Shadow would have said he did... that he understands Tails more then he thinks...but his mind was slowly begining to fade away. He fell to the ground with a thud before his eyes closed. The last thing he heard was "...And don't call me _Miles_..."

* * *

Tails brushed himself off. He knew no one would be able to detect the mind erasion, except him. But, he wasn't going to leave Shadow for dead. He wasn't that bad...yet. At the most, Shadow might never remember this incident, at least for a couple years, if all goes according to plan. 

He hurried into his house and pried up the floorboards under his bed. He dropped the Emerald and the ray gun in there, to hide them, and boarded the holes up again.

He stepped back outside and could'nt have asked for a better setup. It would have looked like Shadow had hit his head on the window door hard, a common injury, and with Shadow's luck, completly understandable. Though, that bump on his head did look bad...

He hurried back into his house and came out with a pillow and an ice pack. Shadow was too heavy to move anyway, so he might as well try out here. He place the ice pack on his head, and his head on the pillow, keeping care not to further injure him. He dash back indoors and dialed up Sonic... he had his alibi already.

"Yo..."

"Sonic... I think you might want to come over here... Shadow kinda hit his head on my window while checking on me after this morning's outburst, and I think he's hurt..."

"Wait, what!?"

"Shadow... hit... his... head..." Tails repeated slowly, hoping to get through to Sonic. "I need your help to move him to the couch..."

"How badly?"

"He's out of it... I got an ice pack on it though..."

" 'Kay... I'll be right over..."

No sooner had Tails had put down the phone had the blue blur showed up at his door.

"You aint kidding!" Sonic said, motioning a hand to Shadow.

" Help me, will ya?"

The two had managed to half drag, half carry, the poor black hedgehog to the couch over the time of three minutes. Shadow groaned lighty before turning over once they set him down.

" Geez... let's hope he'll be okay..."

"With a hit like that... he might have a little trouble remembering anything in the past few days...I can only hope he ends up with a sore spot." Tails said, actually worried. He felt that he might have crossed the line, severely. He didn't really mean to hurt Shadow, but he did'nt want everyone to know it was him who stole the Emerald.This was all for a good cause in the long run... maybe this was how Sonic felt when he was on the run with the Sword of Acorn, to save his dad.

_oh, God... what have I done? _

* * *

End of chapter 2. Whadoya think? Please Read and Review 


	3. Collect

I guess you've figured this takes place in a Sonic X/Archie/Scewd(spl?) Next Gen type world... really... this was supposed to take place in Sonic X, but I just kept writing, and all my knowledge and intrests in Sonic just... came out...

Originally, there was going to be a moment where the curator of the museum keeps eyeing Shadow, like this is his fault. Shadow finally snaps off with: "IT WASN'T ME THIS TIME!" :D... But that got written out when Tails snapping was written in instead.

As a sidenote... I hope you caught my Halo 3 moment... that kinda breaks the forth wall, y'know "Not everyone's played it, yet!" lol

Did anyone catch Big's cameo in chapter two? I felt that nobody pays attention to him much... he needed at least a paragraph.

The point of this story, now that you know that Tails is the main focus, is that I was kinda tired of not finding many good Dark Tails fic-ys... So I came up with this, where on paper... it started much like how Shadow broke into the Museum, in either Sonic X or SA2B, hence Shadow's involvement in this story.

Before I forget... Thanks from:

Baron Von Beef Dip

Konafox

For the reviews... I'm kinda sad about only getting two, though... but I'll give it time...

* * *

Tails was playing his iPod. _Bring Me To Life_ was blaring out loudly in his ears. He mouthed the words silently as the guy's part each time it came up, letting the girl's part go unnoticed. 

**(Wake me up...)**

**_Wake me up inside... _**

**(I can't wake up...)**

**_Wake me up inside..._**

**_Call my name and save me from the dark..._**

_How appropriate... _He thought rather grimly. He ran his finger on the scroll wheel, and went through the list of songs.

**If you want to... I can save you...**

**In a perfect world... This could never happen...**

**Don't waste you're time on me... you're already the voice inside my head...**

**I would trade... Give away... all the words... that I saved... in my heart... that I left unspoken...**

**The day you slipped away... was the day I found it won't be the same...**

**No... No matter how far we've come... I can't wait to see tomorrow... with you...**

He stopped on one...**  
**

**I'm just drunk enough to let go of this pain... to hell with this pride... let it fall like rain... from my eyes... **

"Tonight... I wanna cry..." He sang aloud to it.

Shadow was still out of it on his couch.

_What I've Done _started to play. He pulled the earbuds out of his ears, and shut off his iPod to save it's battery. That song was just too appropriate for his situation. He didn't need to hear it just yet.

He switched the ice pack for Shadow, because the current one was beginning to melt. Shadow groaned and opened his eyes slowly, blinked for a few seconds and stared confusedly at Tails.

"You hit your head outside of my window."

"...What... was I doing there?"

"You wanted to check on me after my outburst at the Museum this morning..."

"...Did I?"

Tails nodded grimly.

Shadow gripped his head in one hand, and let out a low groan of pain, before opening an eye to stare at the twin tailed kitsune wearily as he sat up slowly, wincing as he did so. He felt the bandages wrapped around his head.

"... Geez... why does it always have to be the head?"

Tails couldn't help but laugh a little. Shadow glared the best he could without making his headache any worse.

"...That wasn't a joke, Miles..."

Tails twitched a bit, and brushed it off.

"...Sorry... It's just you always have a habit of hitting your head..."

"Really? I can't seem to remember that...maybe I've hit it too much to really notice..."

Sarcasm.

The both of them laughed at this a bit.

"So, how long have I been out of it?"

"A good couple hours... I suggest you not to try any Chaos based attacks, or anything strenious for the next couple of days, at least until you feel up to it..."

"I'm fine..." Shadow got off the couch and made a good, but feeble attempt to stand. His legs shook for a moment, but a deep breath helped him to stablize. He looked at Tails. "See?"

"All the same, I suggest you should let me watch your Emerald for you, just to help you from trying to use it."

"I'm fine." Flat and final, as always expected from the ebony and blood colored hedgehog.

"Fine... you want me to call Rouge to pick you up... or are you going to walk?"

"Actually... I was... uh... _damn!_" He almost said he was going to Chaos Control, but he remebered that was out of the question. He sat down on the couch roughly, and crossed his arms irritably. "Call Rouge."

Tails laughed for a moment, before Shadow's patented "Death Stare" caused the laugh to take a nervous turn and he left the room to call up Rouge. As he waited for her to pick up, his thoughts wandered to Shadow's green Emerald. Well... he tried to see if he could trick him to give it to him, but it didn't work... he would have to try later, maybe save it for last and-

"Hello?"

Tails was yanked roughly from his thoughts as Rouge's voice sounded on the other end of the line. He shook his head and began to explain.

"... So he just woke up, and I think it would be best for him if you just came to pick him up... And let him crash at your place again, and not let him strain himself..."

"Okay... I'll be over there in a few minutes..."

"Thanks, Rouge..."

Tails hung up, and headed for his living room. Shadow was holding a Chaos Emerald above his head. Tails felt his heart stop for a moment, but then saw it was still the green one. He let out a quick breath of relief and quickly confronted Shadow.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to at least see if I can still do a Chaos Control... I have to at least be able to do that."

Tails was immedatly worried. As much as he wanted that Emerald, he wasn't going to let a friend get hurt on his account. Tails toke a running jump at Shadow and tackled him to the ground. He tried to wrench the Emerald out of Shadow's hands, for the moment, for his own safety.

"Dammit, Shadow! Why do you have to be so stubborn!" His hand swiped at the Emerald, just inches away.

"It's what I do! Since when do_ you_ curse? That's my job!" Shadow struggled wildly, keeping the Emerald just out of the fox's reach.

"Does it really matter?!" Tails yelled as he swung his hands at the Emerald. With luck, he should be able to stall him until Rouge came.

"It should!"

"Why?!"

"Get your arse off me, Miles!"

"Take that back!"

"No!"

"SHADOW!"

Shadow stopped short. His eyes widened when he realized he was busted.

This voice was different. It was Rouge's. She was standing at the door, her arms crossed, staring sternly at the dark hedgehog, as her booted foot tapped the ground impatiently.

Tails snatched the Emerald from Shadow's hand as the hedgehog stared sheepishly at his bat friend, he didn't notice.

"H-hi... Rouge..." He waved a little by wiggling his fingers. He sweatdroped a bit.

"I was told by Tails that I had to take you to my place to recover from a head injury... so... would you mind telling me what is going on?" She looked at the two of them. Tails spoke up first.

"Shadow was trying to see if he could still Chaos Control... I didn't want him to further injure himself... so I had to tackle him to the ground... Sorry..."

"That's okay, Tails... I would have done the same thing..." Rouge glared at Shadow, who felt himself shrink in her presence for the moment. God... she was scary when she was mad...

"Rouge... I... I didn't push myself _much_... "

"When we get back to my place... I wanna talk to you..."

"Yes... Ma'am..." Shadow hung his head, knowing that the conversation was finished for now.

Rouge grabbed his hand and laced his arm over her shoulder. Shadow blushed profusedly.

"Rouge... I can walk just fine, I-"

"I don't want you to hurt yourself... I'm half carrying you..."

Tails had to laugh... he thought those two made a cuter couple than Sonic and either Sally or Amy... Rouge just cared too much about Shadow. He waved at them as they left, not remebering the Emerald in his hands until they were gone from his sight. He shrugged and placed with the one under his bed, and turned his iPod back on. The next song was_ Bleed it out_. He sighed loudly and began to sing along.

* * *

"I just remebered! I left my Emerald at Miles' house!" Shadow quickly remembered as they stood outside of Club Rouge. Rouge shook her head. 

"It's too late to go back, now... besides, I'm sure Tails won't break it or anything. Besides... you won't be able to do and Chaos stuff now... so your recovery is deffinatly insured now."

She pushed open the door, and half lead, half pulled Shadow to her couch.

"Great... more couches..." Shadow muttered. Rouge glared. Shadow caught himself. "N-n-not like that's a bad thing! I _love_ your couch!"

She set him down a little rougher than nessesary.

"We'll talk about this later..."

"Yes, Rouge..."

* * *

ooh... looks like Shadz in the doghouse! 

Read and Review please!


	4. Talk

Aw right! I've finally added chapter 4! I hope this goes on for quite a while. Thanks for the reviews from:

Baron Von Beef Dip - Total # 2

imcool35467

Konafox - Total # 2

infoman825

Thanks D

I'm planning on keeping a tally on who leaves a review more than once. Baron Von Beef Dip and Konafox are currently tied for first... keep it up!

This chappy may be a little slow... but it'll help the story in the long run... trust me.

* * *

"And _furthermore_…" Shadow zoned out a bit as Rouge continued to lecture him, being sure not to look brain dead as he did so. He caught snippets of things like "looking out for you…" and "just trying to help you…". He knew Rouge was chewing him out for his tendencies to reject help, even when it was most needed… he just felt he was better off taking care of himself, so others wouldn't have to worry about him. It was his way, and he would leave it at that. 

"SHADOW!" Rouge's voice jolted him quickly to attention. "Are you even listening?"

Shadow shifted his gaze to the left for a brief moment, or at least tried to, but caught himself and instead closed his eyes, took a deep breath, rubbed the back of his head, and nodded.

"Fine… I'll quiz you… what was I talking about?"

He inhaled. This was the usual question… so he gave the usual answer.

"… You were talking about how I should try to accept help more often…"

"Why?"

"Because even though I'm the Ultimate Lifeform, I can still get injured…"

"And why else?"

He exhaled.

"Because you worry about me…"

Rouge nodded as Shadow looked away, scratching a finger behind his ear, his muzzle reddening a little around the cheeks.

Normally, hearing anyone say that to him… well… he didn't find it all that interesting… but from Rouge…

He coughed and looked her with innocent eyes.

"Are we done now?"

"For now…"

"'Kay… thanks…" Shadow sighed, tilting his head back, holding it with a hand. If only he could just remember what he had been doing before he had hit his head. Those entire two hours seemed just a blank to him, and then some when he was out of it. Wait…

No…

Nothing…

He gave an exasperated sigh, drawing out into a howl of frustration. He damned himself for forgetting every important memory to him. It wasn't just the forgetting of that couple of hours… but more over how often something like this would happen. It frustrated him to no ends.

"Shadow?"

He opened and eye, and gazed in no particular way at the white bat beside him. She was frowning concernedly at him, one eyebrow raised, head cocked to the left.

"You okay?"

He got up a bit more quickly than intended. His head spun briefly, but he ignored it. Deep breath… exhale.

"… I dunno, Rouge… it's just… well…" Where could he start? He always had questions, too many to count. He decided to start with the most recent.

"Do you have any idea what I would've been doing at Miles' house?"

Rouge thought long. She thought hard. She pulled out every possible thing she could think of. One. One came up… the most recent.

"He attacked you this morning, after the museum break in… you might have been trying to check out as to why…Does that help?" She offered hopefully.

It was Shadow's turn to think. He thought long. He thought hard. He… got a headache… a bad one.

"Augh!" He clamped his hands to his head, dropping to one knee, teeth gritted. Rouge was alarmed, and reached a hand out to help stabilize him, unable to really say more than his name. An otherwise silent minute or two passed between them before she saw his hard gripping hands loosen their hold a bit. He set a shaky hand on the ground, and attempted to push himself up, but Rouge held him by the shoulder, keeping him down.

"Not until you're not dizzy any more…" She said as he swayed a little, staring at her through one eye, breathing fast. She helped him back onto the couch, keeping her hand on his shoulder to prevent him from getting up before his spell passed.

"What happened there?" Her voice was blanketed with genuine worry. Shadow having a brain attack like that was not a good sign.

Shadow slid his hand over his face, waving the other with several flicks of the wrist, motioning her to step back a little to him some space.

Pause.

Silence.

Breath.

"I really dunno…" He muttered just loud enough for her to hear. "I went over the day in my mind, y'know… everything was clear, I could see you, Faker, that huge cat, that little cream colored rabbit, and Miles… Everyone… we were at the museum, something had happened… but I can't really remember what right now, and Miles was angry… strike that, _furious_, he jumped at me, and…"

Shadow paused, and sat up a little, leaning on his arm a bit. He shifted his eyes around for a moment, searching for the answer, it would seem. Rouge encouraged him.

"Yes? Anything else?"

"That's just it… after that, nothing!"

"Nothing?"

"Yeah. Next thing I know… I wake up on Miles' couch, bandages and an icepack on my head, with one killer headache to boot… no memory of anything a couple hours before, but, like, what else is new?"

He rubbed his temples with his thumbs, groaning slightly.

"And when I thought about it… the headache came back…"

Tilting his head back again as he sat upright, he shook his head lightly, murmuring something about being "tired of losing memories so often…"

He got up.

"Where are you going?"

"Out…I need some time to think about this a bit more… maybe I'll figure it out…"

"Would you like me to come with you?"

Pause.

He nodded slowly. She linked her arm with his, allowing him to lean on her a little, as he was still feeling a little unsteady. Together, they walked out the door.

* * *

Not to far off, not to long away, Miles "Tails" Prower planning his capture of the next Emerald. He had his eyes set on white, crystal looking one. Owned by a certain white hedgehog.

Eyes the color of a hawk's, fur with an almost mesmerizing glow, and fluff around the neck that could put Shadow's own to shame for sheer volume. His quills were unique; two large streamlined clumps extended beyond his back. A cluster in the shape of a hand was perched above his face, of which his eyes were naturally lined with black. The glowing marks on the back of his hands told of his special abilities quite well; with a flick of his wrist, he could stop any moving projectile about the size of your everyday, garden variety, grade A fireball of doom.

He was talking to a thin, purple cat in pink heel boots. Anyone could see the pink rising in his light muzzle.

Tails walked up to him with a smile on his face, his tails waving behind him.

"Hey, Silver!"

* * *

Uh oh... what's Tails planning now? Read and review 


	5. Taken

Hey there, it's me… Tails. If you are wondering where Rae Logan has turned up, well… let's just say she had to take a "trip" for this "fall", she had… Never mind…

Anyway… I've seen how she's been doing with this story, and I must say, I am pretty impressed, it's almost as if it were true…

I suppose thanks are in order for reviews:

Baron Von Beef Dip - Total # 3

imcool35467 – Total # 2

Konafox - Total # 2

infoman825

Cooldude Num. 1

If you count, that adds up to nine reviews, with Baron Von Beef Dip in first place. Great job to all of you, and keep it up!

As for any questions regarding what I am up to with the Chaos Emeralds… well you'll just have to wait and see…

Oh, dear… It would seem as though Miss Rae Logan is climbing her way back through the window with a rope in hand… I must leave you now with a note of thanks for reading this as I take my leave out the opposite window… farewell, and happy reading!

* * *

That little punk! You won't believe what just happened! No, seriously, you won't… 

Well… it seems he stole my thunder, and congratulated you all who are participating in the review tally… the little brat…

Oh. Be sure to check out my other fics when you finish here for now… the older ones might not be so good, but every thing from _Thing I'll Never Say_ onward are pretty good. Oh, I believe that was what you would call a shameless plug… right? Maybe I should just give you the story. Until the end of the chapter… seeya!

* * *

"Hey, Silver!" he said again, waving at him cheerfully.

Silver turned his attention to the yellow fox, and appeared to be a little annoyed. He was obviously still ticked off at Tails' outburst earlier that day. The glow in his quills heightened a little, the top ones fanning out some. Blaze saw this and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, Silver…" She whispered in his ear. "Remember… he's _only_ eight years old…"

Silver took a deep breath to calm himself, the glowing and fanning of the quills lessening only a little.

"Okay… what do you want?"

"I just wanted to say sorry for how I acted earlier… I had no right to jump at Shadow like that…"

"I see…' Silver's anger at the young kitsune lessened a little more. "… Well… it's nice that you admitted that you were wrong… Did you apologize to Shadow? I mean… you did shake him up pretty badly…"

"Well… not yet, exactly… He kinda hit his head on my window earlier, and I had to call Rouge to come pick him up from my house… I think he has quite a head injury."

"What happened?" asked Blaze. "Is he okay?"

"Oh, yeah… he should be okay in a day or two…"

Tails walked a little closer to Silver.

"Y'know… since one Emerald is already missing… there's a chance who ever took it will want the others. And he might already know who ones them…"

"Hmm… that's a good point… if he knows… he could steal them when we leave them behind, or something…"

Tails nodded as he crossed his tails slightly.

"I was thinking maybe you could let me keep yours safe. I have state of the art security systems, and stuff like that. If anyone tried to take it under my watch… We'll have proof on surveillance of who it was…"

"Good thinking, Tails…" said Blaze. "Wouldn't you agree, Silver?"

Silver shrugged, and then reached into one of his larger clumps of quills, extracting the white Emerald. Its sparkling beauty mesmerized the young fox, it was by far the prettiest he had seen an Emerald. If he didn't know it was an Emerald… he'd have called it a diamond.

"Just don't lose it, 'kay?"

Tails nodded eagerly, catching it in his hands as the white hedgehog tossed it at him. That was three now.

"Thank you! I'll take good care of it."

* * *

The knock on the door jolted him out of his thoughts. He dropped the crystal gem of power, and rolled under his bed. He decided to leave it there for now, and answered the door.

It was Shadow, head still bandaged, but overall, looking much better.

"Hey Shadow… how's your head doing?"

"Better. Actually… I left my Emerald here. May I please have it back?"

Tails' heart sunk. He _needed_ that Emerald. But he decided to make this seem not at all anything to arise suspicions. He went under his bed, pried up the floorboards once more, and extracted the green Emerald from the hiding place.

"Why did you have it under your bed?"

Tails jumped. He turned and saw Shadow standing behind him, arms crossed, foot tapping the ground impatiently. Tails decided to tell him about the "plan" he had told Silver, and even pulled out the white gem out from under the bed to help give his story a concrete feel.

"I see… well… good luck with that…" he turned around to leave with the Emerald. Tails thought fast.

"Wait! Don't you want me to look after yours?"

Shadow stopped at the door, and peered over his shoulder. He shook his head.

"I feel as if it would be safer with me…"

Tails nodded as if he understood. He did… but he _needed _that Emerald. He watched Shadow walk away, the sun now staining the sky as it was now beginning to set.

He shrugged it off… sooner or later… he was gonna get that Emerald.

* * *

End of chapter 5… please review… I love comments. 


End file.
